Fair Trade Coffee Beans

Fair Trade Coffee is a certification process that empowers farmers and farm workers to lift themselves out of poverty by investing in their farms and villages, developing the business skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace, and protecting the environment.

The Fair Trade Coffee certification process also works beyond price and includes:

Fair labor conditions

Fair price

Direct trade

Community development

Environmental sustainability

Democratic and transparent organizations

All of the coffees lista above have received Fair Trade Coffee certification.

Recent conditions of coffee workers are a personal concern for us at Volcanica Coffee. What has happened over the last several years is that a flood of low quality beans hit the market driving the average price paid to farmers for their coffee crop to very low levels. For many farmers this meant that the cost for them to produce coffee was more than what they are paid. Because of this thousands of farmers abandoned their family farms, some of which had been in their family for generations, and seek other means of employment.

The Need for Fair Trade Coffee

This flood of low quality beans is supported by the major coffee manufacturers seeking to bring a low cost product to your grocer's shelves and local coffee shops. What these manufacturers discovered is that if you mix in higher grade beans and if you dark roast the lower quality beans it removes some of the nasty taste and brings it to an acceptable level for your average consumer.

There result is a overal lowering of the quality of the coffee and a demand for lower quality and prices on world coffee bean markets. The Fair Trade coffee certification has been working to correct these market deficiencies and help the local farmers in various countries around the world.